Taronga Zoo Great Southern Oceans

the cloths should fade as well. i think the main problem with them atm is that the are bright white and a bit glaring but that should fade and then i dont have an issue with them then.

 

hahah thanks i looked like such a freak but because everyone else was trying to get photos of seals and actual penguins and all i cared about was the rock work and signs!!

ok i guess i should start at the begining of the precinct and work my way down the hill.
first is streets beach which is just an icecream shop and a small kiddie pool thingy but i think the plans are to walk some of the seal theater stars up to the beach once or twice a day to meet and greet.
the new seal theater is sooo much bigger than the old one and the stage looks interesting with the walf theme but I am a bit worried that it may become too much of a dysney type show rather than the eductional thing it used to be but i will wait till the shows start before passing judgment. the theater pool is cool though becasue fromn the stands you can see above and bellow the water at the same time and the shows should be a hit. dont quote me on it but i think there may also be more then two shows a day planned.

all the holding pools for the show seals are under ground beneth the stands so i cant tell you how they are because i havnt seen them yet.

the pool behind the show is seal habitat pool and it looks great from a seal perspective. it has a decent sized haulout area and the pool is wide and deep. the veiwng is a bit hard because the window is in the corner and you have to try to look around the coner to see them if there up on the beach. the seal in there when i was there was one of the Australia Fur seals and he was having a ball swimming right up to the glass and then turning at the last moment to dart of it the other direction. the walls of the pool are dull and just grey but the floor is fairly interesting with rased 'rocks' and bumps. its also sloped so it gets deeper towards the port hole windows.

the interp signs are reall good. there big and bright and have big pictures and people were actually stopping to read them and seemed to really take in waht they said. the pelican beach was nteresting. i dont really know enough about pelicans to say if it was good or bad but the boat looked cool and the pelicans were moving around. they have also been traned and there will be presentations down there later on. they have a decent sized off ehibit area.

the penguin pool was probably one of my fav bits. it was really effective to have them around so many bends because you were neve quite sure when they were going to turn up again. the reall potention of this area wont be seen untill the group gets begger and more confident though as they were all clumping togeter in one area (except for munro who is very confident and was zooming around the place!). the leopard seal pool was also cool but its a lot barer on the inside then the other pools. there is just a coloum of rock work that i am assuming is holding up the ramp. there will only be one LS at time for a while though as they are only up to indtroductions through the mesh at this point. the capacity for this pool is 4 animals with 4 seperate of show areas and so there is room for either one more rescue seal (or a baby! i wish!).

I dont think the research vessel achieves what it sets out to do as a education area. the only thing i can think of to compare it to is at Sydney Aquarium with there area around there seal pool and the shark entrence with its interp. the whole vessle at the zoo is plastic and looks a little tacky in my opinon but well see how it goes. i also got lost a few times in there and acedently exited before i evern found the leopard seals. so some themed signs would work well.

the negitives would be there are lots of 'dead' areas around the path that are too small for exhibit space but they havnt really planted them up or anyting so there just sandy/dirty patches beside paths and under some of the bridges where you can still see them and a few times i saw people trying to find animals inthere. and the old seal cove pool is really confusing to try and get to and no one was down there. but i guess it is more for the under water veiwing and james the 22 year old was in there so i get the feeling its a kind of retierment pool where its relativly quite for the older seals and they still have good pool and haul out area.
over all i was really immpressed and in a few months when every thing is settled in it should be a really good exhibit.


i hope that all makes sense. its a bit long winded and doesnt really follow any patten but i tried!.

 

snow leopard, the first big capital spend under the new masterplan was Street's Creatures of the Wollemi, which came in at a cost of several million dollars. This development was in turn followed by B2B at $11 million, then Wild Asia at over $40 million, plus the multi-million $ Food Market and Retail precinct. GSO, as you would be aware has come in at $54 million, and the $90 million dollar car-park entry refurb and Bull Elephant paddock at $7 million are due to be completed soonish.
This capital allocation follows a decade of spending which saw such projects as the Gorilla, Orangutan rainforests, Serpenteria, Snow Leopard mountain, Cats of Asia, the FFBShow ampitheatre and Kodiak Bear Canyon turn from plans into reality. of course, the mega-exhibits are special because they are the zoos first immersion style exhibits.

 

brilliant to hear all your opinions! and definately a comprehensve reveiw.

Do you have any more picsof the interp area (under penguins). Was it sort of just 1 vewing area for lS, and 1 for penguins, or was it extensive and winding finding new areas to explore?

 

the penguin area is to the right just as you walk in you follow the satues and then there are the penguins and an exit. to go to the leopard seals you go straight and slighty left. so yer they are seperate in that you can see the penguins with out even knowing the seals exist. i wouldnt say it was extensive but it was big and did have 'sections'

i dont have many but there is one i will put up that shows the sort of interp that is all over the walls

 

Ha Ha LOL ROFL... Thats when I knew it was all over... Auckland Zoo opened their new Red Panda and Otter exhibits and I was there with hard core zoo people (before opening hours) but I was too busy photographing the exhibit layout to be disappointed the animals weren’t out... Welcome to the sad, sad club...!

It 4 – 5 million, the expenditure is in zoolex I think...

Not trying to be negative but both of which are lacklustre I must say...

 

i agree with your assessment of both great ape exhibits; neither are internationally renowned as the chimpanzee exhibit is.
however, to put the orang rainforest in context, it was built in 1994-fourteen years ago and almost more than a decade before any other Australian zoo invested in a major new enclosure for this species. It may not be groundbreaking design, but its not bad either, though it worked alot better when macaques were in there to liven i up a bit.
the gorilla exhibit too, isnt great but it certianly isnt bad either. the animals breed well, the group is stable. there are plenty of things i would 'tweek' but overall i think its OK too.

 

@glyn: thanks for the dollar amounts on the Taronga exhibits. You are a very reliable source of information in regards to that zoo, and must be thrilled to see it evolve as it's done over the past 15 years. How often do you visit?

As far as the great ape enclosures: the chimpanzee group (around 30?) is wonderful to watch, and that eats up a minimum of half an hour of time. The gorillas are equally engaging, except for the fact that the exhibit is too intrusive and far too close for the comfort of the animals. I realize that it wasn't originally built for them, but overall it is still more than adequate. The orangutan exhibit is the least impressive of the three, but what was interesting is that my wife and I spotted 3-4 lizards (I think that they were water dragons) splashing around in the small pool. The orangs can be difficult to see at times, as there definitely isn't the wide open viewing sections that the chimps and gorillas have.

 

@Torie: once again thanks for the awesome photos and comprehensive review of GSO. The new shots that you posted are a little more detailed, and it seems that the animals have a decent amount of space. I wonder what the off-exhibit situation is like for the seals and sea lions that aren't in the public eye?

 

comments from division

I would just like to give you some more info to go with ur comments, in terms of the "dead" areas, they do exsist as the exhibit is only fresh in terms of overall looks, having that plants only young this means the exhibit won't look as it will in the future, an example of this is the wild asia exhibit which when it opened was quite empty in terms of plants but now it's truely turned into a rainforest, i can say the leopard seals will not be breeding atm due to the lack of space and facilities in other institutions across the country, however as time goes on we shall see. If you have any questions ask away.

 

off exhibit areas for non display seals

The new setup is a little different to our old setup at taronga, the show seals which were previously off exhibit unless doing the show now are on rotation from a number of large off exhibit enclosures and the seal habitat pool behind the seal theatre. The leopard seal holding facilities are equivalent to the old pool on the left of the old main pool, so large enough for a single seal to live comfortably in it for a number of months, we have 3 of those of those enclosures off display and will function as simply just a way for us to clean without them getting in the way and nothing else as eventually the plan is to have the three leopard seals living together full time. The holding facilities in this exhibit are designed as purely rotational/cleaning or emergancy areas. Further questions shoot away.

 

not yet mate, been to busy to get pics. I have my camera with me over the next few days so i can get some.

 

The Taronga website now has the updated map, however the pdf link is still to the old map.
To view a larger version of the new map click on the map and copy the url from properties after right clicking (if you're really really keen to see GSO in map form).

 

which is surprising. you'd think being a species exclusive to taronga other zoos would be keen to get their hands on a specimen. i doubt melbourne's new exhibit will have room for any additional seals let alone another species.

whats the deal with california sealions longterm? can we phase these out already? surely teh other eared seal species are easily trained for shows. i don't believe the californians are that much better...

 

I've seen a full grown male NZ Fur Seal peform, it seemed to be not much different than the Californian Sea Lion I saw at Taronga perform...

 

i went to have a look at GSO yesterday. It looks great, at the moment. My only criticism is the fact that the large pool with the leopard seal looks bare. If you are viewing from the large under water area and the seal is not in the water it is, obviously, just a big empty pool. Same goes for the penguins under water area. While i was there the little penguins were all huddled in a bunch up out of the water and the fiordlands were down near the viewing window. They looked great in this area but, didn't seen to spend much time there.
I remember years ago when the under water viewing window near the bottom zoo entry first opened. It was great. But over time the seals started to scratch the inside of the glass with rocks. i remember watching a seal pick up a stone from the bottom of the tank and by using its nose it would push the rock up against the glass then slide the stone to the top of the glass. This caused the glass to be scratched and in the end it looked terrible. obviously this glass window has been replaced for the new pool. Hopefully there are no items in the new pools that can be used by the seals to damage the windows.
Sounds like i am whinging but i am just worried that in a couple of years it will look run down.
I will put some photos of the fiordland penguins on the gallery.

 

hey hey,
yeh mate i do,
been a seal keeper and trainer there for 15 years now

 

Well zoo's are keen, however being keen and being able to afford to build facilities are two very different things, i mean with melbourne doing thier revamps, SA society funding for the panda facility and chimp facility and no other facilities with marine mammals or who want to(or can) expand thier current facilities to house them.

In terms of the cali's, it's not so much thier a drain on our resources, in terms of facilities, for a start we only have one at taronga, umm sea world has a few, but in terms of education they are great. I know there are other species of eared seals that are easily trained, most are, and we do use multiple species, we have the biggest range of species in the country, how ever if we are going to have a diverse range of pinn's to show the range the family has we need to display the cali's as they are a quite extrodinary animal not only to see but also to work with. I think having a few cali's show the species in the region is a very important project to maintain.

 

Zooworker, any plans to add some large fish with the penguins? Sydney Aquarium had trevally in with theirs last time i was there.

 

nar mate, just because it would get a lil tight for space, also it isn't really needed, it would just clog the exhibit.